How To Use A Cheap Mac App That Lets You Type Faster Than You Can Really Type

How fast do you type on your Mac? 30 words a minute? 60 words a minute?

There’s an inexpensive Mac app which can help you to type faster than you can actually type, and more accurately than normal.

No, your fingers won’t type faster, but the end result is that more words are displayed as you type by using customized abbreviations.

Type Faster Than Fast

All of us want to be more productive and more accurate when we work on our Macs. Just a few weeks ago my colleague Jack Miller extolled the virtues of TextExpander.

This sophisticated Mac app uses abbreviations to enable faster typing of often used phrases, words, addresses, paragraphs or anything you need to type.

As good as TextExpander is, it is somewhat complex to setup and use, and it’s not inexpensive. The Mac App Store brings Mac users a trend– lower prices.

aText is a $4.99 Mac app which works similarly to TextExpander and uses specific abbreviations to type out phrases, addresses, words, and paragraphs automatically, as you type.

The end result is more accurate typing, and faster typing. aText lets you create abbreviations and assign them to specific snippets of text.

By using aText you won’t have to type the same words and phrases (even paragraphs) over and over. Just enter the abbreviation, and the text you assigned to the abbreviation is typed instead.

At first, I thought aText was just a cheap knock off of TextExpander. It’s not. While features are comparable, TextExpander does more, but aText does the basics.

You can create snippet groups, invoke shell scripts, and AppleScripts, even use a built-in snippet group for the auto correct dictionary, unusual symbols, HTML code, and JavaScript.

Preferences are not many. Backups are automatic. You can assign specific hotkeys for your needs (I find it difficult to remember abbreviations).

The aText developer is also sensitive to a problem with trial versions in the Mac App Store and provides a free trial from the website.

Similar to TextExpander, aText requires some time to setup specific abbreviations and assign them text you’ll use regularly. So, I recommend that you start with a few snippets of text you use often, so you can see how aText works.

5G? Meh!

About Wil Gomez

I live in Brooklyn, New York and work in Manhattan; a Mac owner for almost 25 years, and an IT specialist on mixed platforms-- Mac, Windows, and Linux. Read more of my articles here. My fiancée is semi-famous Kate MacKenzie. Follow her on PixoBebo.